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I might be the only person picking Minnesota Duluth

I think the home crowd + more NHL talent will put them over the top. They also have a handful of guys who were in the Frozen Four last year. And as a whole, UMD and OSU are very similar. Both have real good powerplays, good goalies, score about the same amount. In an evenly matched game, I lean the team with the intangibles. 

The hopeful expectation for the year was around .500 and maybe

bubble.

We're going to probably get a top 3 seed in the dance and finish at least 5 games over .500. Just remarkable stuff. Massive improvement in every facet of the game except PK (we can't get too greedy). Lavigne, even when he's struggled the last few games, still has made some massive stops. 12-3-1 in the last 16 with that 1 as a SO win over MSU. We are a scary team and Mel has worked wonders for this program

Good sweep

Not a perfectly played series, but it got the job done. Ranked #9 in PWR, we have punched our ticket to the NCAAs. Now time to beat Wisconsin next weekend. 

A really well played hockey game

Michigan still has to get better on the PK and take fewer penalties, but dominated the 5 v 5 play in this matchup. Got the early lead and played well and balanced. Lavigne has really emerged as a good/great goalie that can bail the team out when there are mistakes, but the improvement the team has showed even during the season has been terrific. Mel has done wonders for this team. Time for the sweep on Sunday

Agree

The next few recruiting classes look pretty strong and with Lavigne only being a sophomore + not being drafted means he'll be ours for the next two years. With an emerging goalie, produciton on the roster, and incoming talent, we should be expected to play for titles in the next few years. Really strong season from Mel & co. 

Michigan is now all the way up to #15

in Pairwise. On the verge of the tournament. It has definitely been a strong start to the new B1G year, with two good games against ND and then a sweep at Minnesota. But the next three weekends are crucial vs. PSU, @OSU, vs. Wiscy. Could be the decider of whether we're in or out. Go Blue

I think it's most likely they both come back

But if we make a late run, maybe Mo leaves. But the 2018-19 team will be filthy regardless

Peters

Glad that Brian pointed this out...

Peters needs to start immediately. Rewatching the game film yesterday, O'Korn was dreadful. He made a few nice throws but he made the offensive line look worse than it was. Stood in the pocket way too long on numerous occasions, bailed and scrambled when it wasn't even collapsing. He had as Brian put it, zero vision. All three INT's were all him. Bad decision making, bad passing. Then there's the fact that he struggled to put the fades and deep shots to the sideline in the field of play.

Our options for the rest of this season are:

- A 5th year senior who couldn't beat MSU at home

- A RS Fr. top recruit who has a serious shot to be the starter next year.

What do we have to lose? 2018 is CFP appearance/B1G Title or bust. Plain and simple. The WR's will actually know how to run routes, TE's and RB's will have more experience, offensive line will be better, defense will still be stacked, and special teams will be great. The only question mark is who the QB will be. We need to start developing Peters now. 

I don't believe for one minute that this is a meritocracy or that Peters was given a legit shot. If it is true, and a 4 star stud recruit in Harbaugh year 2 isn't better than Speight and O'Korn then we should give up on Peters right now.

His vision certainly needs to improve

He was a bit too locked in. Jimmy H will have to work on that with him in the future for sure

Oh I agree

I have no personal vendetta against Wilton Speight. I've been one of his loudest supporters. And sure those moments happen, but twice in the first three drives.... I just don't know. O'Korn looked terrible against Indiana last year and that's why throuought this season I've been very resistant to him starting. But he showed me something Saturday that I haven't seen since he came to Michigan. And the whole objective of this post was simply to say that compared to Speight and looking at his performance, JO'K earned a chance to take us to the promised land

Awesome

Thanks!

As a person who's watched a lot of college football

You have to pick a QB by week 4. Think about 2015 OSU for instance. The hot potato situation at QB with Cardale and JT plagued them that whole year. You have to pick a guy and go with him. I'm going to pick the guy who moved the ball. He needs to grow with this offense moving forward

So you really want to go back with Speight?

First off, Speight didn't lead Michigan to 400+ against Florida. They gained 433 in that game and 37 of those were from an O'Korn pass. 

Second, I don't care about what the coaches think or about 400 yards against Cincy. Only once this season has the offense ever clicked and played with consistency. And it was with O'Korn at quarterback. That's all I need. Plus, if Speight had looked good on those three drives okay. But look at my later screenshots. He was worse than a Rutgers QB on those three drives. No reads, no decisiveness, inability to do anythig productive

Example #2

Speight HAS TWO GUYS OPEN ON THIRD DOWN and instead he scrambles and runs out of bounds for a loss. Even worse, is that the pocket isn't even collapsing. He has 0 faith in his OLine and 0 faith in his ability to stand in there. Scared of being hurt, unable to read the defense, indecisive. If anyone would like to defend Speight outside of the "he's won the job two years in a row so the coaches must know something we don't" defense, I'd like to hear it

An example of why JO'K should be the QB

Speight drops back cocks his arm to throw, HAS FOUR GUYS OPEN and he pump fakes and takes a sack. I don't care how JO'K plays, I can't take anymore of this. If this isn't a broken QB, what is? Speight's one signature trait was his ability to feel the pocket, stand in there and make throws. If that's gone... what's left?

The consensus from the comments to my post

Seem to be that people think JO'K is going to be more aggressive and take more risks than Speight. And that's probably true. But I'm totally fine with that. Speight's "nonagreesiveness" is basically just short for "inability to move the football". JO'K is our only hope and I'm pretty optimistic. He needs to continue to improve, but with this defense, we don't need THAT much out of the offense. 

This is a very reasonable take on the situation

They played it pretty safe with O'Korn but he moved the ball. If he plays the whole game they probably score 40+. Purdue has a terrible defense for sure, but the fact that Michigan was finally able to take advantage of a bad defense is huge. 

The problem with this logic

Is that I struggle to see anyway JO'K could possibly look worse than Speight. I'm saying this as someone who has defended him over and over again. He has melted into a puddle. Point #2: Yes, Purdue has a terrible defense. BUT SPEIGHT COULDN'T MOVE THE BALL. Both Speight and JO'K faced a terrible Purdue defense. One guy looked worse than a Rutgers QB, the other guy led consistent TD drive and drove the team for over 400 yards of offense. There's no debate here. I've completely given up on Speight. 

I totally agree that it's problematic

But the point of this post was mostly a) that this team is young and there's still tons of football to be played. No reason to panic yet and b) that I firmly believe we're not that far away from clicking

Um, you're not really correct about Maxwell

Maxwell and Cook started the season in a weird QB-sharing debacle. Cook siezed the job in Week 5, after the loss to Notre Dame, but even after he took the reins it still took them awhile to straighten it out. The team only scored 14 points against Purdue in mid-October. Cook was not an all-B1G guy right away and it took them several weeks to get clicking even after he took over

Like it or not

Speight's our guy. The season is whether or not he can lead an offense good enough to win the big ten. Only time will tell, but this team is abundantly clear, and should be clear given how godawful John O'Korn is, that this is Speight's team. Win or lose, it's his team. He's the leader

You have to think they're holding things back

When it comes to signature plays at least. But I definitely agree that he's being very cautious with this young group. It's a tad puzzling with Speight but we just have to wait and see. I still don't think he's fully settled in yet

Care to tell me what you disagree with?

Details would be nice

I have to do a second watch before drawing conclusions

But the offense's miscues to me, are the result of bad play calling and youth. Speight had a pretty solid game today, but he was under a lot of pressure and there were a number of inconvenient drops. Still looking for the offense to click and get some consistency. But hey, the defense and special teams are elite and that will give the offense a few more weeks to get on the same page

I also want to point out that it's not surprising this was a

bit of a letdown game. Young team spends the whole offseason prepping for the opening game, comes out on fire. No matter how much the coaches say to not overlook the next team, there was going to be an element of that. Both sides of the ball are still getting used to each other, gelling. This is a young team and there are going to be some growing pains. But two weeks in, two really good defensive efforts, some promise on every part of the offense and #7 in the country is not bad at all. 

I agree with that

This is basically an entirely new offense. New receivers, new OLine, Speight is having to work with a new set of dudes. Not sure he's comfortable yet, but hopefully he'll adjust as they get more games under their belt. 

Also agree that Onwenu had a bumpy game. Again, this is a young team. There are going to be growing pains. 

About those

9:12 and 9:17 I agree are "overthrows". But Perry and McKeon weren't really open. I don't fault the QB for missing when the receivers aren't open. I'd rather have him miss than make a bad mistake. 27:16 is one where he's on the run. Tough to fault him when he's scrambling. We can nitpick, but it was a better perfomance, save for 8:16 and 19:36, which were both blatant misses. Definitely watching the film, I agree with Speight's postgame comments about the footwork. That was certainly suspect in the DPJ misses. 

This is a classic sleepwalk game

It's not uncommon for really good teams to have these lethargic sleepwalk games. It's also not uncommon for young teams to have growing pains. Sloppy football on both sides of the ball, though it just looked worse for the offense. But a win is a win. We need to start seeing more consistency from Speight or else you have to consider Peters (O'Korn is terrible). Speight will throw some very accurate bombs and a few great bullets and then some terrible underthrows and overthrows. He needs more consistency and confidence. But a win is a win

BIg get for the good guys!

2019 seems to be a loaded class, and hopefully monster 2018 (and 2017) teams on the field will help solidify it. Now go lock down Dobbs, get Crouch and Cain!

What about it?

If ND is still crashing and MSU is still falling about (which I could see), we could feasibly not be tested until OSU. And how sweet would beating OSU in CBus be to cap a 12-0 season? 

I agree with the premise here

We should absolutely try to win it all in 2017. Duh. Yes people are always going to leave, but we lost a lot last year and will lose very little going into 18, that's just a fact and thus we will probably (depending on how 17 goes) be ranked in top 5 or top 3 going into 18. It is right to look at 18 longingly. But it's also right to believe we can win it all this year, next year, and every year

Two thoughts

1.) PSU is an interesting regression team because they played a handful of close games last year and they were so reliant on the jump ball with Godwin. I question whether last year was legitimate. If they lose the B1G to wisconsin, or if we don't lose to Iowa, no one remembers they were a thing. Instead, two close games, one of which they weren't even in, makes them memorable. 

2.) The DLine is going to be better than last year. Better at stopping the run and rushing the passer. I think LB's will be pretty similar, secondary worse, but that line is going to be great 

Jack Hughes

Would be a superstar get. Instant chance at a title. Come to Michigan, please 

Can't wait to see him play

We are building a very talented LB group. Now if he can just bring Noah with him..... 2019 class could be STACKED

This is an interesting season

I think the season comes down to 4 games:

- Florida: Honestly this is the game I'm least worried about. They always have a tough defense, but I never get the sense they're actually good. They consistently beatdown the bad SEC teams, lose to the good SEC teams, and then get destroyed by the great teams to finsih like 9-4. Zaire doesn't scare me that much and the neutral environment helps M. I like our chances

- PSU: Unquestionably the toughest environment on this schedule, but environment doesn't win games. Football players do. And PSU is a tough team to figure out. The belief that "they got better as the season went on" is only so-so. They got in a lot of high scoring toss up games at the beginnning and end of season (Pitt, Temple, Minny, Indiana, Wiscy, USC). Their defense isn't good and so much of their offense was Godwin crazy catch Hail Maries. I could honestly see them at 9-3 this year. It will be tough, but I think M's offense could be good enough to win a shootout here. I see this as a tossup

- Wiscy: This is a tough one. It's kind of this year's Iowa game. Except, Camp-Randall doesn't terrify me like Kinnick does. It's tough to tell how good they actually were last year considering their noncoference wasn't great (they won a virtual home game against a blah LSU team). Got beaten soundly by M (damn missed FG's skewed margin). Blew winnable games against OSU/PSU and then had an easy bowl opponent. They were just typical Wisconsin. Mediocre QB, big RB, nice OLine, solid D, win 10 games. They have guys to replace and I agree with them being in the tier below. Will we beat them? Idk. It's another tossup. But winnable.

- OSU: Yeah, they're gonna be good. But they're replacing pieces in the secondary and WR. And we're home. If this were at OSU, I'd struggle to see us winning. But at home, I say it's 50/50. All depends on how we look. We outplayed them last year. Maybe third time's the charm for Harbaugh. 

All in all, I say probably 10-2. Maybe 11-1 and division title? Who knows. I struggle to see 8-4 though. As long as we can beat Florida, split Wiscy/PSU, then the season and a ticket to Indy, comes down to The Game. And boy wouldn't that be fun?

This is the type of cupcake game UM needs

Not Furman. That type of game just hurts RPI. CMU is a legit team, but should still be an easy W

It is going to get very political

but I agree with this take. If you believe in something, take a stand

Just hard to believe how fast their program has fallen apart

He was a good football player and now gone. I'm not sure MSU will win 4 games this year. 

I can believe that

Yost is such a fabulous atmosphere. Arguably the best atmosphere of any UM sport

Oh man

I forgot about that. That was unbelievably fabulous, especially for something that came from Ohio

Very happy for him

Would like to see him do very well, so maybe he could be Belein's replacement when he retires. 

This post has me

licking my chops. Yum yum yum. 

I've said this for awhile

OSU can show up for big games. But they lose some really questionable ones and come close in others. Remember them losing to State and a backup QB at home in '15? Or to State in '13 title game. They're a damn good team, but they're beatable. Even this year when they come to AA

I agree with the Brown assessment

That defensive effort reminded me of MSU vs OSU in 2015. Just dominant. If only for Wilton's injury....

We should've beaten them last year

Anyone who watched that game knows these teams at top potential are evenly matched

My thought process constantly is

no matter the crushing losses we had last year, just think of how much better we'll be by 2019/2020

Please let this be true

Please let this be true

If it's only three

then that's a good sign for his on field production

It's going to give these kids a lot of experience

As Calvin's dad said, it builds character. May be good in the long run

Really like this idea

The modernization plan looks good